Welcome to

BY ZIV HAPARNAS

If you are planning for a long digital photo shooting session or are traveling, learning the following habits will help you conserve energy and squeeze more digital photos from your batteries.

Digital cameras have many features and options. Some features consume more energy than others. Some of the greatest features are power hungry. Learning which those power hungry features are and using them with caution can help you get more photos from your batteries.
 

Digital camera LCD screen

The digital camera LCD screen is one of the biggest energy consumers. This is the reason why all digital cameras turn off the LCD screen after a certain amount of non-usage time. In order to conserve energy, try the following:

• Turn off the LCD if you can and use the viewfinder whenever possible. Only use the LCD when you must, such as when taking an overhead shot and the optical viewfinder isn’t usable.
   
• Minimize digital photo viewing. When you view photos on the LCD, you are wasting energy. Only use the LCD to view photos for the possible benefit of the next shot you’re planning to take — to check composition or lighting, for instance.
   

Digital camera mechanical motors

The motors that move the mechanical components of the digital camera, such as the lenses when focusing or zooming, are also a big power consumer. Motors consume a lot of energy when moving the optical components. In order to minimize the motors’ movement try the following:

Do not use continuous focus if unnecessary. You can’t avoid focusing, but you can avoid unnecessary focusing.

For moving objects, such as in sporting events, continuous focus is used so you can stay focused on the object until you’re ready to take the shot. In those cases, if you keep the shutter pressed halfway down, the camera will continue to focus on the object. To save energy, try to keep that continuously focusing period down to just the minimum necessary.
 

Digital camera flash

The digital camera flash is also a big power consumer. Shooting photos using the flash consumes more energy than shooting without it. You can’t avoid flash photography when it’s needed, but in many cases you will find yourself shooting photos in situations where the flash isn’t required, but because it was left in automatic mode, the camera fires the flash. To conserve power, set the flash to manual mode and control its usage.
 

False shutter button usage

Every time you press the shutter button halfway down and don’t take a photo, you waste energy. When you press down on the shutter, the camera goes through a series of processes, getting ready to shoot a photograph. It focuses the lenses, it wakes up electronic components and gets the flash ready if needed. Avoid pressing the shutter halfway when you do not plan to really shoot.

Until there is a breakthrough in battery technology, you will have to keep your power consumption in mind when you go on long shoots and aren’t able to change or recharge the batteries. But you can follow the few simple usage tips I present here to help significantly extend your digital camera’s battery life.

Ziv Haparnas is a technology veteran and writes about practical technology and science issues. He write for printRates, a site dedicated to photo printing, where you can find more information about photo album printing and photography in general.